


Origami Dragonflies

by Qwerty_2poynt0



Category: Coraline (2009), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Genre: Because of Reasons, Character swap, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Dragonflies, F/M, Origami, Tags Are Hard, Time Travel, kubo is a cinnamon roll
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-09 10:58:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8888281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qwerty_2poynt0/pseuds/Qwerty_2poynt0
Summary: "Who are you and where is my daughter?""Kubo! Kubo?"-+*+-Coraline finds herself stuck in feudal Japan with Cat. She's not sure how she got there or why she's seemingly appearing right as another kid is disappearing, but the last thing she remembers is going to sleep...Kubo's just woken up in a strange place with strange people saying and wearing strange things. Frankly the entire experience is just too confusing and odd for him. But he has to get home. And find this Coraline person.





	

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I do these things to myself? I already have too many unfinished fics. What has possessed me to do this?  
> Oh well, just don't expect this to update too frequently! (or for it to make much sense. I just sort of made it because why not!)

   Coraline looked out her window. There was a supermoon tonight. It looked like an orange almost. She couldn't really think in anything more than simple sentences. She was too tired.

   Somehow, the Cat had gotten into the house again. Coraline had stopped caring about how he did it.

   "Mow..." he remarked, the moonlight reflecting from his glossy fur.

   "You don' meow much." Coraline slurred as sleep slowly flowed over her, consuming her in drowsiness. She had a feeling she'd sleep well tonight. But something nagged her. It was like she'd forgotten something, or she wasn't noticing something. She didn't have the energy to figure it out.

   "Mrow."

   "D'ya think... smthn's gonna... happen?" She muttered.

   He purred affirmatively and Coraline fell asleep, oblivious to the strange notes plucking imperceptibly through the room. The Cat's ears rotated as he attempted to place it, hopping onto the foot of Coraline's bed like a ward.

\--

   Coraline's eyes cracked themselves open. Her bed was inordinately hard and scratchy, and the room- wait, this... wasn't her room!

   "Wha--" Her eyelids fluttered open aggressively (if eyelids _can_ flutter aggressively) and her eyebrows furrowed. She shifted her arms in the dirt and the Cat was sitting there in front of her with his back to her, keeping a vigil. Coraline pushed herself up and looked around. She was on a woven mat in a cave. There was a fire pit thing with a kettle suspended above it, and an old man sleeping on a mat on the other side. He seemed a bit restless.

   "Shh." Whispered the Cat. Coraline gave him a look to say 'No. Really?' and he replied with one that said 'not the time' before sauntering over to the curtain at the mouth of the abode.

   Once the two of them were outside, Coraline was confronted with an endless expanse of sea glistening in the orange sunrise. It was blinding and the realization that they were on a cliffside gave her the light sense of vertigo.

   "Woah." She remarked.

   "Surprising." the Cat mirrored. Coraline raised her eyebrows, looking down at him. She'd figured this could be the case when he had articulated a 'sh', but hearing him speak again after about a year or so of not hearing his voice at all was rather jarring. She looked back to the water, deciding not to address it. Questions were never of much use around him,- at least they weren't if you were looking for clear answers -rather he could speak or not.

   "But... where are we?" She wondered, hoping something could come out of asking.

   "Well, there's a path down the mountain this way." Said the Cat, walking down the gradual incline. Coraline followed and when they turned the corner, she could almost see a village in the distance.

   "I think that place is our best bet." Coraline reasoned.

   "Yes, we shouldn't dally." the Cat corroborated.

   The two of them quickly made their way down the mountain as the air became denser with humidity and cautiously walked into the town, where the inhabitants were beginning their days.

-+*+-

   Sleep lifted from Kubo lethargically at best. He was sure he was dreaming, because everything  _felt_ so much like a dream. He was wrapped in warm, soft blankets, there was a fluffy pillow beneath his head, and everything held the essence of a thick, almost arid peaceful atmosphere. He became dully aware of a sort of knocking sound, followed by a voice. He dismissed it as a quirk of this obvious dream and idly wondered if he'd have to wake up soon; something he really didn't want to do. He'd been waking up earlier than usual lately, and he was rather restless in getting to sleep that night. It was like something itched at him. Like there was something that needed doing. He'd strummed out a few quiet notes on his shamisen to get whatever it was out of his system and managed to drift off, but it seemed strange to him that he'd only start dreaming just as he was about to wake up.

   He didn't have anything too important to do today anyway. If he could just dream a little longer, even if it was a rather uneventful dream about sleeping, he'd like that very much. It occurred to Kubo he may want to find more opportunities to relax or take a break in the waking world before the knocking came back along with the voice, both slightly louder.

   "Mmmh..." Kubo's eye scrunched up, the muscles around his remaining empty socket doing the same. He grabbed the blankets and wrapped them around himself tighter. The mattress sank a bit more than Kubo thought would be reasonable for a futon, which he'd never had occasion to sleep on in the first place; though he figured it was his imagination taking liberties. His dreams were usually rather vivid, so it made plenty sense. It wasn't long before the knocking and the voice was back, now much more insistent.  _Why does it sound like wood planks? That doesn't make sense..._

  Kubo chalked it up to dream logic. He pondered idly if he should try figuring out what the voice might be saying, but he was enjoying the dream too much and was also slightly afraid it was his mind integrating something from the outside world to wake him up before he wanted to. Just a few moments after that, he heard a strange sound like something unclipping from something else followed quickly by a creaking sound and footsteps.

   " _Coraline--"_ Whatever the voice was saying died and Kubo sensed that it wasn't a good thing.  _What does Coraline mean?_ Kubo wondered.

   "Mmm..." Kubo turned his head toward the voice and cracked his eye open. He had to squint a bit. The atmosphere was that of blue washed grey and the woman standing in his sideways view stared at him, both shocked and confused. Her eyebrows drew ever closer together and something sparked in her eyes as she said very authoritatively,

   "Who are you and where is my daughter?"

   Kubo batted his eye, and that statement snapped him out of his haze right quick. This suddenly didn't feel too much like a dream, despite the foreign atmosphere and seemingly off-kilter balance of his perception.

   "I..." Kubo managed to get out raspily trying his best to bring himself back to the real world, which this was definitely not. At least, it shouldn't be. He pushed himself up on his elbow and blinked up at the woman. Part of him realized why everything had seemed a bit off balance since on a normal bed in this position, his head would be about level with this woman's knees, but his vantage point was much higher than that, and it threw him off a bit. The lower half of his body was about level with hers, albeit she had a much longer torso. He took a moment to wonder at what the woman was wearing before she leaned forward a bit and continued to question him.

   "Well?" She asked. Kubo shook his head, deciding he needed to answer her questions before pondering over anything else.

   "I... I am Kubo, miss. And... I'm terribly sorry but I'm not entirely sure where your daughter might be. Or who she is. I'm not positive where  _I_ am, to be honest. I still feel like I might be dreaming."

   She stared at him, baffled. Kubo wasn't entirely sure what kind of answer she'd expected, but that probably wasn't it.

   "... Well... Kubo, do you have any idea how you might've  _gotten_ here?" Her question sounded almost incredulous, but she was treading carefully, clearly just as much at a loss as Kubo was.

   "Not really, no." Kubo's eye fell to the ground and he noticed that the floor was made of wood and also just how  _far_ from the floor this bed was. This  _really_ didn't make any sense. His eye trailed over to the frame supporting the incredibly superfluous mattress and he asked another question absentmindedly. "What even  _is_ this place? Beds are never like this as far as I know."

   If Kubo had looked up, he would've seen how Coraline's mother's face twisted itself into complete disbelief.

   "Kubo... Where exactly are you  _from?"_

   "Hm?" Kubo looked back up at her. "Ichu, miss. It's a rather small village so I wouldn't expect anyone to really know where it is. It borders the forest of walking trees along the coast and it isn't nearly as mountainous as other places."

   "... Walking trees." She echoed flatly, sounding like he'd just suggested the sky was green.

   "Yes. You don't know that either, do you?" Kubo persisted, slightly let down.

   The woman shook her head "No... Kubo do you know your parents' phone number?"

   "Phone... Number...?" He pulled his legs into a criss cross position, tangling the blankets a bit as he tilted his head to give the woman a confused look.

   "Yes. Or do they not have a phone?" The woman followed up. Kubo continued to look back to her. What even  _was_ a phone? He decided to ask later.

   "It... wouldn't be of much use to call them anyway they're..." Kubo looked away, gripping the blankets lightly. He'd grieved plenty, after all it'd already been over a year, but he'd like to see someone else try not to be at least a little glum when they had to explain that their parents were dead. The woman seemed to catch his drift and let out a soft 'oh'.

   "Well," She continued, "Who takes care of you?"

   "Well... No one, really. At least, no one in particular. Everyone in the village helps me and my grandfather out and I tell stories to earn-" He stopped short. If this was real and  _not_ a dream (which was somehow becoming more and less likely simultaneously) it was very likely he didn't have his shamisen. Kubo was suddenly nervous. Very nervous. He could hardly remember the last time he was nervous. Uneasy, maybe. In fear of his life, definitely. But he was honestly unsure if he'd ever been nervous in his life. He wasn't ever a nervous person. The woman across from him noticed his sudden shift and stepped closer.

   "Um... Kubo?" She prodded cautiously. Kubo shook his head and looked back to her.

   "Um, sorry miss, I... I just realized I'm missing something."

   "What exactly is it?" She asked sounding like she was trying to be gentler.

   "Um... It's... an instrument, miss. A shamisen. It has three strings and a long neck," He stretched out his hands vertically to mime the image, "and the sound resonates in the square-ish drum-like section at the bottom."

   "... I have never heard of an instrument like that in my life." She said bluntly. Kubo's hands fell to his knees as he tilted his head, not understanding how someone could've never heard of such a common instrument. Or, maybe not common, but very easily recognizable.

   "Well... Anyway, what is this place?" Kubo moved on. The woman blinked at him and opened her mouth to answer him when a voice came from further in the house, startling Kubo.

   "Honey! How's waking Coraline going?"

   Kubo leaned away from the doorway and finally noticed how strange the general structure of the room was. There were no sliding doors and the ceiling was arched. The window nearby showed that they were apparently on the second story. What was strange about them was the way the openings were constructed, with strips of wood much smaller than would be in normal windows, and they seemed to leave a glare on everything outside, which made absolutely no sense. There was a strange structure across from the bed, too. Kubo had no idea what to make of it. It was a low to the ground rectangular opening and seemed to be permeated by soot. His eye made its way back to the apparent door which wasn't like any door he'd seen in his life. It had a strange round handle and was made of a good two inches of wood which made _no sense._

   "Um..." the woman called down. "You may want to come up here."

   Kubo's eye darted to her, the question evident on his face.

   "Don't worry." She tried to reassure him, "We'll try to straighten this out."

   Kubo took a deep breath and nodded. A few moments and some footsteps later, a man with a mop of loose curly hair and... whatever those were on his eyes popped his head through the doorway. Upon seeing Kubo sitting just a bit awkwardly on the bed, he turned to the room's only other occupant, rather confused and distressed.

   "Kubo here doesn't seem to know how he got here."

   "... Should be call his parents?" The man asked.

   "He say's they're no longer with us." She explained.

   "Oh... um..."

   The man made his way fully into the room. Kubo looked between the two of them. This place and these people were unlike anything he'd seen before. It didn't make much sense to him.

   "Excuse me but... Where is this place, exactly?" The adults seemed to have only now noticed that he didn't actually know where he was in the first place.

   "Oh. This is the Pink Palace apartment home." The woman explained.

   "Pink... Palace? I've never heard of a place like that."

   "Well, we're not too close to town, so it makes sense." The man smiled down at him. Kubo nodded took another moment to scan the room. All the architectural abnormalities aside, the room was heavily decorated with pictures pinned to the wall and various fluffy-looking fake creatures. Strings of paper dragonflies hung from the long posts of wood at the corners of the bed. which Kubo thought was very interesting indeed.

   "... You asked when you walked in where your daughter was." Kubo mused as he untangled himself from the blankets and stood up on the mattress. "This is her room, isn't it?"

   "Um... Yes." The woman replied. Kubo thought of what she'd said when she'd first walked in.

   "You were saying her name when you first came in, weren't you? Cor... aline?" Kubo reached up and fiddled with the clip fastening one of the dragonflies to the string. Coraline's mother once again confirmed his suspicions as he succeeded in removing the paper bug.

   "I see." He sat back down at the edge of the bed and examined the paper dragonfly. It wasn't origami, that was for certain.

   "Well... um... Kubo!" Coraline's father caught Kubo's attention and he looked up from the dragonfly. "Since you're so far from home it seems, how about we get you some breakfast? We'll call someone and see if we can't find where you're supposed to be."

   Kubo gave the man a small smile. He was a bit more approachable than his wife, at least Kubo believed so at the moment.

   "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, thank you very much."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! When I looked through the tag, I noticed there was only one other Kubo-Coraline fic and it's REALLY GOOD LIKE OMG, everyone must read it!!  
> If anyone's curious where the village name came from along with the whole walking trees thing, Gaijin Goombah made a video about Kubo and the Two Strings where he cross-referenced a bunch of clues in the movie with real-world locations and figured out where Kubo and the Two Strings was most likely to take place.  
> (also, who else thinks the ship should officially be called Origami Dragonflies, because that is just TOO PERFECT[even though I am relatively sure I am literally the only one who ships it anyway])


End file.
